Step rails and other vehicle components are sometimes designed to provide exterior lighting for when a user is entering and/or exiting the vehicle. For example, some step rail illumination devices include a series of individual lamps (e.g., light-emitting diodes (LEDs)) that are mounted on the underside of the step rail and emit light downwards so as to provide ground illumination; these devices are referred to here as ‘multi-lamp’ devices. Typically, each lamp in a multi-lamp device is mounted in an individual socket, is connected to other lamps by way of wire harnesses, and produces a localized light pattern beneath the lamp.
Although this type of arrangement may be useful for certain applications, it may also come with certain drawbacks. For instance, multi-lamp devices can sometimes produce a non-uniform light pattern underneath the device that undesirably includes a series of bright and dark spots corresponding to the different locations of the lamps; the non-uniformity of such a pattern can become exacerbated if one or more of the lamps burns out or otherwise malfunctions. In addition, multi-lamp devices with a series of interconnected lamps and wire harnesses can be expensive and difficult to install and connect.
The illumination device described below was designed with some of the aforementioned considerations in mind.